This is interesting.....financial difficulties?? Anyone else heard of this?
Reports of nickel projects in Indonesia and China’s Qinhai province being postponed due to financial difficulties along with growing demand for ferro-nickel from the Chinese stainless steel industry have fueled expectations of tightening supply of nickel.
“The higher price of recycled stainless steel has made Chinese stainless steel refineries turn to ferro-nickel for their raw material needs instead. In addition, new nickel projects are reportedly having difficulties, which also generated some bullish sentiment in the market,” a nickel analyst based in Beijing said.
At the same time, SHFE nickel stocks continue to slowly decline; nickel stocks at SHFE-approved warehouses fell by 415 tonnes to 14,466 tonnes in the week ended January 11. This is down 74.7% from year-ago levels.
The most-traded May nickel contract rose to 92,280 yuan ($13,645) per tonne as at 10.32am Shanghai time, up by 560 yuan per tonne from last Friday’s closing price.